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smoke gets in your eyes

hurricane3

hurricane3

SOH-CM-2025
Sorry for the pun , this isn't a big problem and since I start from a cold dark cockpit ,I don't see it, but all of a sudden ,as usual for me, when I started FS9 I noticed some very quick sharp edge flashes when the VC panel loaded. This wasn't from MSCONFIG like I usually fly. Then on the stock Cessna 172 I noticed from the external view a lot of exhaust smoke, like the mixture was too rich or it was burning oil.
I checked other planes and got the same thing for most planes.
Now on some planes this doesn't look out of place ,on others it does, like the 172. The jets look ok and some planes that you would think would have a lot of smoke don't, the Ford Trimotor has just the right amount of smoke on start up as it always has.
The smoke isn't square boxes like I had one time my smoke files got courrupted but is perfectly formed smoke that after (and I timed this) 1 minute and 45 seconds will slowly get thinner and dissapear. Once in the air the smoke goes totally away.
And it isn't like the fog type smoke like when you hit the I key.
The only changes I've made were my dumbo head install of Utah beach-normandy scenery and I had taken out and installed the new version of the U.S. Coast Guard HH 65 ,Dolphin. I had saved the old HH65 package and when I could find no way of starting the HH65 up, (Ctrl+e didn't work) I put the older version back only to find( I never flew these helio's) they wouldn't start from Ctrl+e either. Thats how I found out about the smoke thing by checking to make sure Ctrl+e would work and it does ,even works on some helio's.
So how would all these planes have this smoke problem?The planes on my external HD which has the full installe of FS9 works the same as normal, just the one on the C drive.
From running in Msconfig ,which I've had to do for years so I don't lose textures and the sharp flashes aren't as noticeable to running straight where after the VC loads a few times ,the flashes go away but not the smoke.
So how could this happen?
 
As usual I forgot something

Forgot to mention I deleted the FS9 config file and let it rebuild a new onw ,but the same thing, and I'am not about to start doing system restore's since I'am not sure when It happened.
It wouldn't be me unless I forgot a few dozen things would it?
 
I wonder if your base start up effect file may have been overwritten by a modified one from one of the packages you installed.

To test it, I will attach the original start up effect file here for you to drop into your Effects folder and see if that corrects the problem.

Down load the attached file, rename it to fx_engstrt.fx and drop it into your main Effects folder.

OBIO
 
OBIO it won't let me rename it

When I try to rename the file ,it says it will make it unusable ,so what do I do?
 
Re name it as per instructions it is actually a text document anyway that needs to be named as per the instructions to work as a effect file
 
it's about 85%

It's now about 85% better than it was. The smoke is still different from the stock smoke ,for instance the stock smoke for the 172 has a black puff and very little gray or white smoke but now there is a stream of gray smoke that doesn't seem in line with the exhaust but it only lasts a few seconds instead of a minute and 45 seconds, so it much better.
Also the flashing you can see when the VC loads is much briefer than before and after the first startup it isn't there at all, so you definately made a big improvement. It's not as before but much better.
Thank you OBIO
 
If the improvement or fix from Tim is not enough AND if on your external drive everything is still OK you have the option of trying the effects from that folder as well.

As usual there are a couple of options.

1a. You could simply copy the entire effects folder from the external drive into the FS install on C, letting it overwrite any files as you copy it in.

Or

1b. Rename the effects folder on the C drive first to something called ..effects_tst for example. Then copy the entire folder from your external drive in. Test FS. If it looks ok so far you can then copy the files inside the two subfolders of effects_tst back into the respective folders of the new effects folder. BUT this time do not let it overwrite. This way you will have the files from the external drive PLUS any additional ones with different names you may have added later

2. You can look at one aircraft in particular...say the C-172 and in it's aircraft.cfg write down the exact name of all the effects being called up. Then find only those in the effects folder on the external drive and copy only them onto your C drive into the correct place in the effects folder.

Cheers
Stefan
 
Can't help you with the smoke, but as for starting the heli's, cntrl+e doesn't work, you need to use cntrl+shift+F4. Works on 90% of the heli's.
 
copying didn't work

I made a backup of my effects file ,then copyed and pasted my effects file from my external HD to the c drive and strangly enough that did'nt do a thing. I don't really understand what I should do on the second thing you suggested and don't want or have time for the third thing, so looks like the best I can do is leave it as is.And thanks Astroth for teling me about ctrl+shift +f4.
 
Astoroth that didn't work

Using ctri+shift+f4 won't start the Coast Guard HH65, at least the older version ,kinda afraid to put in the newer version ,things are a little messed up and don't want to make thing a lot messed up. Thanks anyway
 
gets curiouser and curiouser

Just an update on things I've found. When I opened the effects file in my external HD( the one where everything is normal) I could find nothing that said fx_engstrt.fx all the engstart files had planes names attached but none that just said fx_engstrt.fx. when I opened the effects file on the c drive( the one that has excessive smoke ,there were two files ,one said fx_engstrt_fx and another that said fx_engstart.fx and right beside it . So I deleted both and got no smoke at all from the C172.
I put back one at a time and got the engine start smoke (though better than before as I said in the 85% better post).
So why is there the right amount of engine start from the external HD with neither file in effects and no smoke if I delete both files in the c drive?
Since both files are the same size and date, I figure the first time I put in Tims file I must have copyed the name wrong and used fx_engstart.fx instead of fx_engstrt.fx. I put both back although just putting in fx_engstrt.fx does reduce the amount of smoke so I can probly delete the one labled fx_engstart.fx since it doesn't seem to make a difference in the amount of smoke,with both there or one.
But I'd like to know why the FS9 install on the external HD has the normal amount of smoke without either file being there?
 
got it!

I finally figured out what was wrong and fixed the smoke problem on the C drive.
I did another search of the effects file in the FS9 install on my external HD and did find a file named fx_engstrt.fx which I missed the first time. But this file was only 5.17mb instead of 37.9 of Tim's file.I erased both files in fs9 on the c drive and put in the smaller file from my external HD and everything is back to normal.
Please don't get me wrong I'am not dishing OBIO , he tried to help me and he's the best in the business and I don't know why his file was bigger, but that would explane the less dense but still more, smoke than usual.
So thanks Tim you gave me the idea to search the effects files and look for something that was unusual.
I am posting all this in case someone else has the same problem and this well help.
 
Hmmmm.....maybe the file I sent you Hurricane wasn't a copy of the original stock FX_engstrt.fx file. When I set up my newest (4th) install of FS9...I copied some folders from my other three installs and pasted them into my newest install so that it would have every single gauge and effect file in my other installs since I was moving the planes that I fly the most from the 3 older installs into my newest install. So, the fx_engstrt.fx file that I sent you is probably not the original stock one at all....and I could not begin to tell you where it came from. I just checked that file in my 4 installs, and they are all the same 37.9kb in size.

OBIO
 
not to worry

It is weird that the oridinal stock file was 5.14 mb while all yours are 37.9. It's a mystery wrapped in an enigma ,or somthing like that.Oh well everything worked out and think of the money I'll save on oil, or gas ,or something. And I won't have to get that ring job. Thanks OBIO
 
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